From Tech Transfer Newsletter, Spring 2008 » printer-friendly

Quality Assurance For Public Agencies In California

By Jason M. Dietz, Federal Highway Administration, California Division Office

A significant portion of the overall Federal-Aid program is expended on material production and construction-related activities. It is critical that effective programs are in place to ensure the quality of our construction projects. Current figures show that an estimated 80 percent of transportation dollars are spent on construction, with approximately 50 percent used for materials. Poorly built and maintained roads are both expensive and inconvenient to taxpayers. The service life, future maintenance costs, level of service, and user costs of our roadways are directly related to the quality of the products used and the soundness of the implemented construction practices.

The principle that the delivery of safe and effective roadways and highways is a duty owed to the taxpayer is the basis for a Quality Assurance Program. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) currently mandates minimum standards whenever Federal-Aid funding is used for projects on the National Highway System (23 CFR, Section 637.207). To obtain a reasonable degree of quality assurance for local transportation projects, minimum design standards and specifications should also be established and enforced. All roadway and highway activities (planning, design, construction, maintenance, etc.) must be effectively performed to ensure acceptable levels of transportation performance.

Since most local governments have limited resources for inspection, sampling, and testing, a quality assurance program must depend upon assistance from many individuals outside their own agency. Such programs, therefore, often include consulting engineers who perform construction engineering services, materials testing laboratories, and the contractors who perform the actual work. The efforts of all of these participants should be coordinated by a comprehensive set of standards and specifications.

Caltrans Local Assistance Procedures Manual (LAPM), Chapter 16.14 - QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM (QAP) provides local agencies with guidance on quality for the construction of transportation systems both on and off the National Highway System (NHS). The two main elements of an effective QAP are acceptance testing and independent assurance sampling and testing. Together, they provide Local agencies with acceptable sampling and testing programs to ensure that the materials and workmanship incorporated into roadway and highway construction projects are in conformance with the contract specifications. For more information, please see Chapter 16 of the Local Assistance Procedures Manual (PDF, 768K).

The Local Assistance Procedures Manual (LAPM) is being updated to provide clearer guidelines for Local Agencies. The current LAPM requires local agencies to develop and maintain their own QAP manuals for use on city and county transportation projects off the NHS. By the end of 2008, Caltrans’ Division of Local Assistance will publish a revised "Quality Assurance Program for Local Agencies." Cities and counties can then decide to either use the new QAP manual or continue to use (and develop) their existing QAP manual.

Effective quality assurance programs result in the following benefits to local governments.

Greater Value for Money Spent
Quality assurance ensures that the public receives the performance for which it has paid. Conversely, quality assurance identifies areas where more quality is being bought than is really needed.

Improved Performance
If designs and specifications are properly prepared and the quality of construction is well-controlled then the end product performs as expected. Service, as an element of performance, includes rideability, traffic capacity, load carrying capacity and safety.

Decreased Maintenance Costs
It is commonly accepted that roads and bridges that are initially well-built will not be as expensive to maintain during their service life as poorly-built assets.

Fairness to All Concerned
Quality assurance programs cannot be for the sole benefit of the public agency. Developers, contractors, suppliers and consultants all must be able to conduct their business at a fair profit. Everyone should benefit by clearly establishing what is expected, how it will be verified, and the consequences of noncompliance. By knowing what the standards are from the beginning, those dealing with public agencies can afford to do their job right the first time.

Avoidance of Legal Hassles
When too much personal discretion and judgment is allowed, an agency is open to charges of favoritism and misuse of public funds. Quality assurance establishes clear rules and procedures and provides proven checks and balances.

Common Sense Approach
A quality assurance program need not be complicated. It should simply be a common-sense approach to ensure that the public dollar is well spent.

Good quality assurance programs provide many benefits to the local agencies that employ them, as well as to the citizens and taxpayers who expect us to design, build, and maintain long-lived, well-performing public infrastructure assets at the lowest possible cost. These expectations apply to every public agency at the federal, state, and local levels, and we all need to work in partnership to be sure that the expectations are met.

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